You always hear stories about people who tuck old comics or toys in the attic for years and later find out how valuable they've become. Some guy from Norway just did that with bitcoin.

According to The Guardian, Kristoffer Koch bought 5,000 bitcoins in 2009 for only 150 kroner ($26.60 USD). Years later, that investment unexpectedly grew into a little nest egg.

Koch originally bought the bitcoins writing a thesis on encryption. After that was complete, he forgot about them.

But when the media started heavily covering bitcoin in April 2013, Koch was reminded of his and decided to take a peek at his encrypted wallet containing those original 5,000 bitcoins. He found out that by today's rates, those 5,000 bitcoins are worth NOK5m ($886,000 USD).

This afforded him a nice apartment in Toyen, which is a wealthy area in the Norwegian capital.

Bitcoin value tends to fulctuate a lot, and Koch happened to see his value at the right time. In April 2013, bitcoin value peaked at $266. Then it fell to a low of $50 soon after.

In fact, it hit a high of $197 just this month.

For those who are unfamiliar, bitcoin is a peer-to-peer digital currency that is encrypted. It's bought with traditional currency from a bitcoin exchanger and later change them back for cash or other purchases.

Earlier this month, the FBI shut down Silk Road, which was a website designed that enabled its users to buy and sell illegal drugs and other unlawful goods and services anonymously. New York U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara seized $28 million in bitcoins that belonged to Ross Ulbricht, the alleged owner of Silk Road.

In my last comment, I don't know why "stable" was autocorrected to "stabile" - that was at no fault of my own and didn't notice it. Perhaps I've used "stabile" too much when discussing prototypes.

I'm not an expert, but I agree with the statement about control, but not because of their ability to affect inflation. In fact, inflation in the United States has been rather constant, which is great in terms of stability. Again, I'm not an expert, but I would surmise that the lack of control makes it harder for regulation. Private sectors are generally great at invention and innovation, but they can also be really bad when it comes to greed - consider profiteering, collusion, and intimidation. Bitcoin has the potential to be both really good and really bad and it's the bad reasons that I tend to play the conservative card.

The problem with government debt is there is such a thing as too much. The media likes to play it up for ratings, but the government could be a little more intelligent in how it allocates its finances. Remember, this income is coming from businesses, taxes, tariffs, foreign countries, etc. but people want to have a say in how their taxes are spent - after all, they are doing the work for that money.